Should they have called it if it happened in the first minutes of the first period?

But because it's OT, it's cool if they close the eyes on it?

I know I'm gonna compare apples and oranges, but, man, in the Superbowl, if they have to throw down the flag on the last play of the game and make a team go back 5 yards and cancel their hail-mary touchdown that would have won them the game with no time left on the clock, they will throw down the flag on the last play of the game and make a team go back 5 yards and cancel their hail-mary touchdown that would have won them the game with no time left on the clock.

I know some people are gonna say that they don't want the refs to decide the issue of the game by giving out a penalty during OT or something.. but if the penalty was deserved, and they don't call it, don't they also affect the issue of the game?

I'm just woken up from a nap so I think that this may not make sense but here goes nothing.

I think that for the most part we all agree that clear penalties should be called whenever they happen in the game, but where the line becomes muddied is when it isn't clear whether or not something is a penalty. Hockey, more than football, has plays like that where it isn't always clear if they warrant penalties. In regular play usually those calls can go either way and while fans complain it's a pretty good system, at least one that's as close to good as we can get in a game where officiating is as difficult as hockey. In overtime however, with the entire game on the line, time is more valuable (no one takes a shift off, there are more goals scored in five minutes of overtime then probably most five minutes blocks of the first three periods) and a lot of people don't want referee discrestion deciding the game, because that's usually what it comes down to when refs are deciding whether or not something not clear is a penalty or not, their own discretion. Know what I'm sayin? I'm sorry if that was fucked up and shit I'm so tired.

They have no bones against giving teams 10 minutes of straight powerplay time numerous times against the Capitals this season.

They have no problems deciding games by going into machine-gun soft penalty mode. But when there are actual game deciding penalties... "Hey man we just want to let them play." BULLSHIT, do your fucking job.

There were a series of non-calls in the last 5 minutes of the Jets/Devils game last night. Calls on some trips by both teams could have led to a regulation win but the refs were letting shit slide. At least it was still even but kind of detracted from the potential energy of the game.

Came here to say this - it was borderline but shouldn't have been called. Nonis needs to remind himself he's not like the GMs in the stands who think they know how to run a hockey team; he actually does.

It was our end-of-season party, and I was watching this game with the Pee Wee team that I coached, and it was hilarious when this happened. They were all screaming and laughing "OOHHHHH!!! HE JUST DROPPED THE F BOMB!!!" Note to self: watching a hockey game with a bunch of 12-year-old hockey players is really fun, because they get SO into the game.